Chapter 100: Bottom of the Coffin
I thought more and more complicatedly. If the person at home was not my father, then why didn't my mother and grandfather say a word? But if it was, how to explain the corpse here? It's impossible for him to have another clone. That would be amazing. Although I have seen many ghosts, I still don't believe that people can do this.
I looked at the corpse in the coffin and didn't say a word for a long time, until Xia Ruxuan gently pushed me, then I came to my senses. I saw him sighing and saying that although it felt a little cruel to see these, it was good that you knew your father didn't abandon you on purpose. It was much better than me. My father was still alive, but it was no different from being dead.
I still didn't say anything, still immersed in my own speculation. It was as if there were two shadows in front of me, one was the shadow of my father in my childhood memory, very vague, but very real, and the other was the rotting corpse in front of me, horrifying, but seemingly unquestionable.
At the end, I felt like my head was aching, I didn't know how to judge, and I didn't know what to believe. I solved a mystery, but then I found more and more problems.
Xia Ruxuan lifted the coffin lid from the ground. It looked heavy and his movements were a little laborious. I was silent for a while, then I walked to his side, stretched out my hand, and helped him close the coffin again.
I asked him, is it true that all the bodies of people here can only be left in this place after death?
He shook his head and said that it would only last for a period of time. You have seen it before, there are as many names on the wall as there are corpses that have been placed here, but there are only twenty-eight coffins. As long as a new corpse comes in, the oldest one will be moved.
I looked around and according to Xia Ruxuan, the people lying in these coffins were all from the Tan family and the Xie family.
But the question is, what is the purpose of placing these coffins here, and where did the transferred bodies go, and why did they collect the bodies of the villagers? There is no cemetery around this village, and the beautiful snake couldn't have brought them back just for a formality.
I told Xia Ruxuan my doubts, and he didn't hide anything and told me directly, "Remember what I told you, the blood amber was found here."
I nodded, motioning for him to continue.
But he did not respond immediately. Instead, he pointed towards the coffin and said, "Look at that single wooden coffin. All the corpses will be put in it in the end, including the corpses collected from the village. All will be put in it."
I was curious and thought of the blood-clotting coffin I saw in the mirror, but that coffin only contained a corpse and other people's blood. This single-wood coffin seemed to be longer than the other coffins around it, but how could it possibly hold so many corpses?
I slowly walked towards the center, but after taking two steps, I couldn't help but frown. The further I went in, the stronger the stench became, even stronger than when I opened the coffin and looked at the corpse just now.
I quickly covered my mouth and nose with my sleeves again, and seeing that Xia Ruxuan didn't react, I thought there shouldn't be any danger except for the bad smell. So I continued to walk over.
As I approached the single-wood coffin, the temperature around me seemed to drop sharply. I subconsciously shrank my neck and moved closer to the torch in Xia Ruxuan's hand, but strangely, the flame was still burning, but I couldn't feel any temperature at all, as if the flame on the torch was not an ordinary flame, but a ghost fire.
I subconsciously reached out to feel it, but Xia Ruxuan rolled his eyes at me and said there was no need to try, as it had no temperature. It was a good thing that the fire was still burning here.
Although I understood what he meant, I couldn't help myself and slowly touched the flame. I found that it was just as Xia Ruxuan said, it didn't feel hot at all. I could feel the faint trembling of the flame burning in the flame. But it was cold like ice.
I asked him, what was going on?
He shook his head and said, "I don't know. It might be because of the coffin. It's always like this. If you stay here for a long time, even your hair will start to freeze."
I frowned, and without saying anything else, I moved closer to the coffin and looked inside.
I originally thought I would see a pile of corpses, or at least some limbs. But when I looked inside, I found that the coffins were empty. There was nothing inside.
I felt even more puzzled and moved closer, only to find that this single-wood coffin had no bottom. The entire coffin box seemed to be welded to the ground. I reached out and pushed it, but it was as heavy as a mountain and did not move at all.
But the foul smell did come from the coffin.
I took the torch and put it into the coffin to see what was inside. But I found that since the coffin had no bottom layer, the lower part was like a hole, and I didn't know where it led to.
Moreover, when I shone the torch, the light seemed to be blocked, and could not reach the cave below. I don't know where this cave leads to, nor how deep or big it is, but think about what Xia Ruxuan said, if all the bodies were thrown here, there would be hundreds of names on the wall alone. Not to mention the villagers who died in this village.
I looked at Xia Ruxuan and asked him, where does this place lead to?
He spread his hands and said, "I don't know, and neither does Xie Ning. We know very little about what happened here. We only know that the blood amber was found underneath here, but we don't know who got it and how.
As he said this, he glanced at the coffins around him and said, "Brother Tan Xi, these are a formation to suppress the things under the coffins. Although it has always been peaceful and has never been used, the Tan family and the Xie family have sent people to guard here for so many years, and in the end they didn't even take the corpses back. Guess why?"
I said how would I know, if you have something to say, just say it quickly and don’t keep me in suspense!
He laughed and said, "Xie Ning and I have guessed this before, and we think this idea is quite reliable. Is it possible that a powerful thing like blood amber can be shocked by these coffins? Obviously, it is impossible, so the two families found a compromise. It's like raising a python. For such a dangerous creature, you want it to stay by your side. On the one hand, you want to make sure it won't hurt you, and on the other hand, you need to make sure it can fill its stomach and not bite you when it's hungry. In this way, it will hide its aggressiveness and make you feel that it is harmless."
I thought about what he said, and it was as if an electric current passed through my mind, and I immediately understood.
What Xia Ruxuan meant was that this place was as dangerous as the blood amber. It was unreliable to rely on these coffins to set up a formation and suppress it for a long time. So they collected the corpses like feeding bait to a python. If you feed it in a short period of time and make it satisfied, then even if you don't have the power to subdue it, it will put away its edge and will not hurt you.
It's just that the bait here is too expensive, it's human corpses. But the more this is the case, the more it shows that this place is valuable. Although I can't see it at all, and even feel a little perverted in my heart, this behavior has been going on for hundreds or even thousands of years.
I vaguely felt that if I could solve the mystery here, other problems would also be solved. I hurriedly asked Xia Ruxuan, "Has anyone gone down here in recent years?"
He shook his head and asked me who would dare to go down there, as the corpses piled there could form a mountain, and no one alive now knew what was in there.
I thought about it and felt that our current situation is like a huge treasure right in front of us, but everyone feels that a deadly thing will pop out of the treasure box, so no one dares to step forward to test it. But it's always like this, and in the end we still miss the secret.
I thought about it for a long time and felt that even if I didn't dare to go down, it would be okay to stick my head in and take a look.
So I told Xia Ruxuan about my idea, and he immediately showed a look of horror and said, "You are looking for death!"
I said it was okay, someone had dared to go down and get the blood amber out before, maybe it wasn't as dangerous as imagined, and there were always people who took this step. I'm not an outsider now, I don't do my own thing, why wait for others.
Xia Ruxuan thought for a while and said okay, then I will hold your hand and at most I will peek down to see what’s going on. If anything happens, just shout loudly and I will pull you out. This is already my limit. If anything happens to you, not only will that hanged ghost not tell anyone, but your two friends will also eat me up!
I nodded my agreement and did it without hesitation. I took off my shirt and wrapped it around my mouth and nose to prevent myself from being choked by the smell coming from below.
Xia Ruxuan took a look at the blood amber on my chest and said that this is what so many people want, and it looks very ordinary.
I nodded without saying anything and slowly climbed onto the single-log coffin. Only then did I realize that both sides of the coffin were uneven, but it allowed me to support my body better.
Xia Ruxuan held my feet from behind so that I could get down inside. But just as I steadied myself, I suddenly felt something was wrong. The pendant on my neck suddenly sank, and the chain tightened, as if someone was grabbing me and dragging me into the coffin. Fortunately, I quickly steadied the side of the coffin, and Xia Ruxuan also noticed something was wrong and held my feet.
But now, this pendant seemed to weigh dozens of kilograms, weighing me down.
I used all my strength to suck my breasts, fearing that my hands would lose strength and I would fall into the bottomless abyss. But even so, my head was almost in!
I didn't understand why this strange phenomenon suddenly occurred, but at this moment, I suddenly saw a pale thing poking out from the abyss at the bottom of the coffin.
First there was a skull, then a piece of human bone wrapped in some torn white cloth.
I was shocked and remembered what Tintin had said. I subconsciously compared it with the thing he described. The ghost thing that was stretched out turned out to be the mourning stick in Wuchang's hand!
